Jessica Parke has been awarded the Bruce Cutler Fellowship in Creative Writing for Fall 2018.

Josh McKnight, a 2016 MA graduate, has been accepted with full funding to the PhD program at KU.

MFA Students Teach in Community this Summer

Four of the department’s MFA students will teach creative writing this summer in the community thanks to research assistant money from the Graduate School. Becca Yenser will teach seniors on Friday mornings at the Park City Senior Center. Also in June, Sydney Martin, Jessica Parke, Mariah Perkins, and Becca Yenser will teach third and fourth graders how to write stories and poems through a literacy organization here in Wichita called Storytime Village. They will help the children write stories that will also be illustrated and printed so that each of the 50-some children become the author of a book, which they learn to market—and sell to family and friends. Sydney, Jessica, Mariah, and Becca will do this teaching in June for an hour a day Mondays through Thursdays at Urban Preparatory Academy on East 24th Street, close to campus.

Creative Work “In Cahoots”

“In Cahoots” is a collaboration between the theater and creative writing program at Wichita State, in which creative writing written by the department’s students are read by student actors in the theater department. The stories are available on it podcast here. has seven stories written by our students and read by student actors in the theater department available on its podcast here.

The stories included are: “Lovers Lane” by Michael Cole; “Ant Lifeboat” by Annmarie Woods; “The Staring Man” by Jake Eskridge; “Molly” by Jay Youngers; “Flashlight” and “Heritage,” both by Matthew Garner, and “Doves” by Chance Swaim.

MFA Class of 2018 Presents their Work

On Sunday, April 29th, the graduating MFA students read from their Final Projects. The names and project titles of the students who will be graduating later this month are listed below. Congratulations to all!

Katherine Amundsen

An Archivist’s Guide to Floating

Poetry; Directed by Kristina Marie Darling

Nicole Byrne

Angiogenesis

Poetry; Directed by Sam Taylor

Matthew Garner

Provenance

Fiction; Directed by Margaret Dawe

Toni Loeffler

Mouth to Mouth

Poetry; Directed by Kristina Marie Darling

Shannon Nakai

Where You Were Carried

Poetry; Directed by Sam Taylor

Chance Swaim

Midcontinent

Fiction; Directed by Margaret Dawe

Joshua A. Zimmerer

House of New Millenia: A Novel

Fiction; Directed by Margaret Dawe

Conference News

Zach Parker was accepted to present at the MMLA conference in the fall of 2018. The paper is titled “Voice and Disruption: Cycles of Power in James Baldwin’s ‘Going to Meet the Man'”.

Sigma Tau Delta’s fall tri-regional conference is now open to submissions. You can follow the link here to learn more about the conference, to submit work, or to volunteer as a reader.

Remember to contact the blog as you are accepted to conferences, publications, and other exciting opportunities.

Job Opportunity

If any MA or MFA candidate would like to grade placement exams over the summer and into the future, please contact Victoria Stewart. This is a paid position.

Looking for Panel Moderators

Have you ever wanted to host your own panel? To assemble academics from across three regions to hold the best breakout session? Always wanted to see a niche topic discussed but have never found it at a conference? You can take care of all these things by volunteering to moderate a panel. Open to both graduate students and undergraduate students, you can create your own call for papers, organize your panel, and present it at this fall’s “Looking Forward” conference held by Sigma Tau Delta: Alpha Theta Omicron.

EGSA Elections

During the last English Graduate Student Association meeting, members voted on the incoming officers for the 2018-2019 term. There are still positions that need to be filled.

Aaron Rodriguez has been appointed President for the 2018-2019 year.

Dan Arndt has been appointed Vice President for the 2018-2019 year.

Zach Parker has been appointed Faculty Liaison for the 2018-2019 year.

Positions still available:

Treasurer

Secretary

Student Relations Liaison

Sigma Tau Delta Elections

Sigma Tau Delta will be holding officer elections in August. All four positions are up for election. If you are interested, please contact one of the Sigma Tau Delta officers for more information. The positions are as follows:

President

Vice President

Secretary

Treasurer

Sigma Tau Delta’s fall tri-regional conference is now open to submissions. You can follow the link here to learn more about the conference, to submit work, or to volunteer as a reader.

Upcoming Events

Sigma Tau Delta will hold its final meting of the year this Friday, May 4th.

There will not be an EGSA meeting for the rest of this semester.

The Wichita English Blog is signing off for the year, and will return after the summer. Thank you for a great year and have a fun, relaxing, and productive three months of break!

Sincerely,

Your Blog Editors:

Sydney Martin

Zach Parker

John Darr

The weekly digest is published online on the blog every Wednesday. We’d love to hear from you! If you have any news at all to share, please send it to wichitaenglish@gmail.com or use the “Submit Blog News” form located on the rightmost corner on the blog.

On Friday, April 20, mikrokosmos hosted their spring book launch party. Authors published in the newest addition of the journal attended and read their work for attendees, followed by an open mic in which everyone was welcome to share their creative works. Thank you to everyone who came out and supported mikrokosmos!

If you have not yet been able to obtain your copy of the new journal, it is available for purchase on Amazon.

Sigma Tau Delta Bake Sale

Last week, Sigma Tau Delta held their bi-annual book sale. Each semester, the organization sells books and baked goods in Lindquist lobby, so look out for them next semester!

Achievements and Awards

Henry Postoak (Senior, Linguistics Minor) was selected for a fellowship to attend The Institute on Collaborative Language Research 2018 (https://colang.lin.ufl.edu/) at the University of Florida this June, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Linguistic Society of America. The fellowship covers round-trip travel and registration for two weeks of workshops at CoLang. Congratulations, Henry!

Emily Posson (Senior, Linguistics minor) has been selected for an intensive study abroad program at Oxford University in the UK for four weeks this summer. The program includes a one-on-one class with a professor in Linguistics. Every week, she will be reading a set of texts set by the professor, write a 2,000 word essay, and defend the essay in a weekly meeting. She believes this experience will hone her writing skills and help her write effective grant proposals and scholarly articles, both of which are integral to her future career as a linguist. In addition, she looks forward to meeting new people, learning about a new country, and developing valuable relationships with others in her chosen field.

Research Assistants

The following graduate students will be working as research assistants this upcoming year:

Have you ever wanted to host your own panel? To assemble academics from across three regions to hold the best breakout session? Always wanted to see a niche topic discussed but have never found it at a conference? You can take care of all these things by volunteering to moderate a panel. Open to both graduate students and undergraduate students, you can create your own call for papers, organize your panel, and present it at this fall’s “Looking Forward” conference held by Sigma Tau Delta: Alpha Theta Omicron.

EGSA Elections

During the last English Graduate Student Association meeting, members voted on the incoming officers for the 2018-2019 term. There are still positions that need to be filled.

Aaron Rodriguez has been appointed President for the 2018-2019 year.

Dan Arndt has been appointed Vice President for the 2018-2019 year.

Zach Parker has been appointed Faculty Liaison for the 2018-2019 year.

Positions still available:

Treasurer

Secretary

Student Relations Liaison

Sigma Tau Delta Elections

Sigma Tau Delta will be holding officer elections in August. All four positions are up for election. If you are interested, please contact one of the Sigma Tau Delta officers for more information. The positions are as follows:

President

Vice President

Secretary

Treasurer

Conference News

Midwest MLA is still accepting individual papers until Monday, April 30. You can view the call for papers at the linked website. The conference is held November 15-18 in Kansas City, MO.

Zach Parker was accepted to the Rocky Mountain MLA conference in the fall of 2018.

Sigma Tau Delta’s fall tri-regional conference is now open to submissions. You can follow the link here to learn more about the conference, to submit work, or to volunteer as a reader.

Publications

Becca Yenser, current first year MFA student, recently published her book, Too High and Too Blue in New Mexico. You can find more information about the author and her work here.

Upcoming Events

Laura Mielke’s presentation will take place this Friday, April 27 starting at 3 PM in Lindquist 112. She will be talking from her book, Provocative Eloquence: Theatre, Violence, and Anti-Slavery Speech in the Antebellum U.S. You can view the flier for the event here.

Sigma Tau Delta’s last meeting of the Spring semester will be on Friday, May 4 from 1-2 PM. It will be an induction ceremony for new members and a farewell to graduating members.

The English Graduate Student Association’s final meeting of the Spring semester will take place on Friday, may 4 from 2-3 PM.

Caroline Erickson, a Creative Writing undergraduate at WSU, won 1st place in the 2018 Ventura County Writers Club Poetry Contest for her poem “(lover)”. Her poem will be published in the club’s upcoming anthology, Nuances. Congratulations Caroline!

Undergraduates Present Linguistics Research

Emily Posson (“Korean Color Terms”), Henry Postoak (“Local Identity and the Language of Craft Beer”), and Joshua Green (“Chesh Kafo: Constructing a Language”) presented research papers at the Undergraduate Research and Creative Forum (URCAF) on Friday, April 06, 2018. All three projects in linguistics were supervised by Mythili Menon. Congratulations Emily, Henry, and Joshua!

Mikrokosmos Spring Release

The Mikrokosmos Spring Book Release Party will be held on Friday, April 20, 6:30-8 PM in the first floor atrium of the McKnight Art Center. Food, drinks, books, readings from the authors, an open mic, and limited edition Mikro swag will all be available. Be sure to drop by and check out the shiny new journal and celebrate a tremendous creative year with the community.

Upcoming Events

Faculty and students are invited to attend the Language and Linguistics Colloquium Series’s student panel on “Languages in Kansas,” featuring the WSU undergraduate work of Jamillah Sleiman, Emily Roets, and Emily Posson. Thursday, April 19, Hubbard Hall, room 208. Co-hosted by the department of English and MCLL.

Laura Mielke—associate professor from Kansas University—will be giving a talk from her forthcoming book, Provocative Eloquence: Theatre, Violence, and Anti-Slavery Speech in the Antebellum U.S. on April 6th at 3pm. The title of her talk is “Shakespeare’s Portia and the North’s Argument against Slavery: An American Performance History”. The talk will take place on Friday, April 27 in Lindquist 112 at 3PM.

On Saturday, April 28, 7 PM, head to Central Standard Brewing for a full night of sounds from Latin America. The show is free, must be 21+.

The weekly digest is published online on the blog every Wednesday. We’d love to hear from you! If you have any news at all to share, please send it to wichitaenglish@gmail.com or use the “Submit Blog News” form located on the rightmost corner on the blog.

The Mikrokosmos Spring Book Release Party will be held on Friday, April 20, 6:30-8 PM in the first floor atrium of the McKnight Art Center. Food, drinks, books, readings from the authors, an open mic, and limited edition Mikro swag will all be available. Be sure to drop by and check out the shiny new journal and celebrate a tremendous creative year with the community.

Congratulations to Aaron Rodriguez for being elected Graduate Senator for SGA

Upcoming Events

Mikrokosomos will meet Friday, April 13 at 12 PM in Lindquist 500.

Faculty and students are invited to attend the Language and Linguistics Colloquium Series’s student panel on “Languages in Kansas,” featuring the WSU undergraduate work of Jamillah Sleiman, Emily Roets, and Emily Posson. Thursday, April 19, Hubbard Hall, room 208. Co-hosted by the department of English and MCLL.

Laura Mielke—associate professor from Kansas University—will be giving a talk from her forthcoming book, Provocative Eloquence: Theatre, Violence, and Anti-Slavery Speech in the Antebellum U.S. on April 6th at 3pm. The title of her talk is “Shakespeare’s Portia and the North’s Argument against Slavery: An American Performance History”. The talk will take place on Friday, April 27 in Lindquist 112 at 3PM.

The weekly digest is published online on the blog every Wednesday. We’d love to hear from you! If you have any news at all to share, please send it to wichitaenglish@gmail.com or use the “Submit Blog News” form located on the rightmost corner on the blog.

Voting for the Student Government Association began this past Monday, April 2. And the English department’s got a representative in the mix. Aaron Rodriguez, second year MFA student, is running for Graduate Senator. Be sure to log in and cast your votes! Voting closes today, April 4, at 5:00 PM.

Sigma Tau Delta International Convention

Over spring break, MA candidate Kelsey Abendroth traveled to the international Sigma Tau Delta convention. Her reflection on the experience is below:

While many students spent their Spring Break relaxing, I boarded a plane bound for Cincinnati, Ohio to attend the Sigma Tau Delta International Conference. Well, Dallas first, and then Cincinnati. Attending the conference was one of the best experiences of my academic career (both undergraduate and graduate). Not only was I in a beautiful city, but each day of the convention had an abundance of interesting roundtable discussions, panel presentations of academic and creative works, and speakers. Although I was the only student from WSU to attend, I never felt alone. Everyone was friendly, warm, and eager to share their knowledge.

I participated in a roundtable discussion about Writing Centers, along with students from Fort Hays State University and Southern Arkansas University, during which we discussed the most effective ways to conduct appointments and common problems consultants encounter. We also spent a great deal of time on the differences between sessions with native-English speakers and International students. All-in-all, it was a terrific, albeit exhausting, weekend. I walked away with a head full of ideas that I hope to implement in our own Writing Center next semester.

Upcoming Events

Sigma Tau Delta will meet Friday, April 6 from 1-2 PM (Linduist 500).

English Graduate Student Association will meet Friday, April 6 from 2-3 PM. Officer elections will occur during this meeting (Lindquist 500).

Mikrokosomos will meet Friday, April 13.

Laura Mielke—associate professor from Kansas University—will be giving a talk from her forthcoming book, Provocative Eloquence: Theatre, Violence, and Anti-Slavery Speech in the Antebellum U.S. on April 6th at 3pm. The title of her talk is “Shakespeare’s Portia and the North’s Argument against Slavery: An American Performance History”. The talk will take place on Friday, April 27 in Lindquist 112 at 3PM.

The weekly digest is published online on the blog every Wednesday. We’d love to hear from you! If you have any news at all to share, please send it to wichitaenglish@gmail.com or use the “Submit Blog News” form located on the rightmost corner on the blog.

The Department of English cordially invites you to attend the 8th Formal Approaches to South Asian Languages (FASAL) on March 31-April 01, 2018. Wichita State University has the honor of being the first Midwestern University to host FASAL. The program comprises of scholars from North America, Germany, Italy, and India making it a truly international event. If you are planning on attending the conference, please register for free online.

Mythili Menon and Emily Posson presented a poster titled ‘A Decomposition Analysis of Color Terms in Korean’ at the 42nd Annual Penn Linguistics Conference (http://www.ling.upenn.edu/Events/PLC/plc42/index.html) on March 24, 2018 at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. This is Emily’s first research conference presentation during her undergraduate days at Wichita State.

Henry Postoak presented a talk titled ‘Local Identity and the Language of Craft Beer’ on March 28 at the The Meaning of Food: Interdisciplinary Conference on Representations of Food in the Arts and Humanities (http://meaningoffoodconference.com/) in Greensboro, NC. This is Henry’s first research conference presentation during his undergraduate days at Wichita State. This research is advised by Mythili Menon and is an extension of an assignment Henry did for the ‘Language of Food’ gen-ed class last Fall as part of his Linguistics minor.

Kelsey Abendroth participated in a roundtable discussion on Writing Centers at the Sigma Tau Delta International Convention.

Awards

Drew Colcher won Best Poster from Wichita State University for his visual aids in his presentation at the Capitol Graduate Research Summit.

Kelsey Abendroth received money from Sigma Tau Delta to use in Wichita State’s chapter for her participation in the International Convention.

CFPs

Midwest Modern Language Association Conference (MMLA) abstracts and proposals are due on April 15. This year’s conference will be held in Kansas City.

Wichita State will host a tri-regional conference for Sigma Tau Delta this fall. If you would like to volunteer to assist with the event, please visit Zach Parker in Lindquist 616. Submissions for both creative and critical work are now open. you can access all the information for this event at: https://atolookingforward.wordpress.com/

Upcoming Events

Wichita State will host the 8th Formal Approaches to South Asian Languages from Saturday, March 31 through Sunday, April 1 in the Rhatigan Student Center.

Wichita State will host the 5th Annual Gender & Sexuality Conference on Friday, March 30 from 8-5 PM in the Rhatigan Student Center. Attendance is free, though attendees must register to attend. Registration information can be found here.

Sigma Tau Delta will meet Friday, April 6 from 1-2 PM (Linduist 500).

English Graduate Student Association will meet Friday, April 6 from 2-3 PM. Officer elections will occur during this meeting (Lindquist 500).

Laura Mielke—associate professor from Kansas University—will be giving a talk from her forthcoming book, Provocative Eloquence: Theatre, Violence, and Anti-Slavery Speech in the Antebellum U.S. on April 6th at 3pm. The title of her talk is “Shakespeare’s Portia and the North’s Argument against Slavery: An American Performance History”. The talk will take place on Friday, April 27 in Lindquist 112 at 3PM.

Wichita State’s 2018 Gender & Sexuality Conference will take place on Friday, March 30. There is no cost to register to attend sessions. Registration starts at 8:30, sessions begin at 9.

Sigma Tau Delta’s next meeting will be April 6.

EGSA’s next meeting will be April 6.

The English Speaker Series will continue on Friday, April 27 at 3 PM with Laura Mielke, who will be presenting on her recent project, Provocative Eloquence: Theatre and the Limits of Anti-Slavery Oratory in the Antebellum U.S.

The Wichita English Blog will return after spring break. We hope everyone has a safe and relaxing week!

The weekly digest is published online on the blog every Wednesday. We’d love to hear from you! If you have any news at all to share, please send it to wichitaenglish@gmail.com or use the “Submit Blog News” form located on the rightmost corner on the blog.

Last Thursday, March 1, Mikrokosmos hosted an open mic competition to help raise funds for WSU’s literary journal. There were up to fifteen open slots and the audience voted for their favorite reader by placing money in a jar with the reader’s name on it. Thanks to everyone who attended, and be on the lookout for more MikroBrews events in the future!

Publications

Daniel Arndt’s essay titled “Talking to Plants” will be published in the March issue of Snapdragon. The theme of the issue is “Other & Together.” For a closer look at Snapdragon, A Journal of Art & Healing, click here.

Halloween ComicFest call for presentations

The University Libraries will be hosting Halloween ComicFest again this year, and they’re looking for people to present during break-out sessions of 20-30 minutes each. Topics may include comics, graphic novels, cosplay, or really any popular culture or “geeky” themes. Last year’s talks ranged from the influence of Japanese monster movies on American cinema to transhumanism in modern media to the history of comics in Latin America.

If you are interested in presenting, please complete this short form. Topics don’t necessarily need to be set in stone yet, it’s mostly to confirm interest and availability and to give the planning committee an idea of our presenters’ areas of interest. Of course, if you are interested in presenting yourself you’re welcome to submit a proposal as well.

Responses from interested presenters are due by March 9th, and the schedule will be finalized around early April.

Upcoming Events

EDIT: Wichita State is currently hosting the Diverse Women’s Summit. Full information can be found here

The next English Graduate Student Association meeting will be Friday, March 9 from 2-3 PM in Lindquist 500.

The English Department will host an informational session titled, “Applying to Graduate School” on Friday, March 9 at 3 PM. Both graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged to join.

The English Speaker Series will continue on Friday, April 6 at 3 PM with Laura Mielke, who will be presenting on her recent project, Provocative Eloquence: Theatre and the Limits of Anti-Slavery Oratory in the Antebellum U.S..

The weekly digest is published online on the blog every Wednesday. We’d love to hear from you! If you have any news at all to share, please send it to wichitaenglish@gmail.com or use the “Submit Blog News” form located on the rightmost corner on the blog.

Four WSU English graduate students are attending the AWP conference next week. Each year, more than 12,000 attendees join together for four days of dialogue, networking, and access the organizations and opinion-makers that matter most in contemporary literature. The conference features over 2,000 presenters and 550 readings, panels, and craft lectures. The bookfair hosts over 800 presses, journals, and literary organizations from around the world.

Katie Amundsen, Mariah Perkins, Becca Yenser, and Nicole Byrne will be representing Mikrokosmos with a table at the conference. We wish them travels and a productive trip!

Publications

Carolyn Whittaker’s poetry has been accepted in the spring edition of Stand Magazine. Her poetry is part of a memorial collection she wrote in remembrance of a former teacher and mentor. Congratulations Carolyn!

Halloween ComicFest call for presentations

The University Libraries will be hosting Halloween ComicFest again this year, and they’re looking for people to present during break-out sessions of 20-30 minutes each. Topics may include comics, graphic novels, cosplay, or really any popular culture or “geeky” themes. Last year’s talks ranged from the influence of Japanese monster movies on American cinema to transhumanism in modern media to the history of comics in Latin America.

If you are interested in presenting, please complete this short form. Topics don’t necessarily need to be set in stone yet, it’s mostly to confirm interest and availability and to give the planning committee an idea of our presenters’ areas of interest. Of course, if you are interested in presenting yourself you’re welcome to submit a proposal as well.

Responses from interested presenters are due by March 9th, and the schedule will be finalized around early April.

Upcoming Events

The SGA funding meeting for Mikrokosmos is tonight, at 6:30 on the 2nd floor of the RSC. Please come support our literary magazine, and speak about why our funding is so important!

Mikrokosmos will be hosting Mikrobrews at the Donut Whole tomorrow, March 1, from 7-9 PM. There’s an open mic competition, and prizes involved! Help Mikrokosmos raise money for their release party! Check out the flier below for some more information.

The next Linguistics Club meeting will be Friday, March 2 from 12-1 PM

The next Sigma Tau Delta meeting will be Friday, March 2 from 1-2 PM, in Lindquist 503

The next English Graduate Student Association meeting will be Friday, March 9 from 2-3 PM.

The English Department will host an informational session titled, “Applying to Graduate School” on Friday, March 9 at 3 PM. Both graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged to join.

The English Speaker Series will continue on Friday, April 6 at 3 PM with Laura Mielke, who will be presenting on her recent project, Provocative Eloquence: Theatre and the Limits of Anti-Slavery Oratory in the Antebellum U.S..

The weekly digest is published online on the blog every Wednesday. We’d love to hear from you! If you have any news at all to share, please send it to wichitaenglish@gmail.com or use the “Submit Blog News” form located on the rightmost corner on the blog.

Student Spotlight

Research Interests: The expression of color terms in Korea, indefinites and specificity in formal and informal Sinhala.

Upcoming/Current projects or publications: My senior thesis is on the expression of Korean Color Terms and looks at the usage of Korean native roots of color and borrowed Chinese roots for color expressions. My hypothesis states that borrowed Chinese color terms are undergoing replacement by English color terms, and there will be a confirmation of the “gru” phenomenon. I am testing this using a Qualtrics survey which includes an acceptability rating study.

I will be presenting parts of this research, co-authored with my faculty adviser Dr. Mythili Menon, as a poster presentation at the 42nd Penn Linguistics Conference.

Apart from this, I am also working on theoretical aspects of Sinhala syntax and pragmatics. I will be presenting this research as a poster, co-authored with Henry Postoak, in the FASAL 8 linguistics conference to be held on WSU campus in March 2018.

Favorite class at WSU: Intro to English Linguistics

Things you have been inspired by recently: The Korean writing system, Hangul, because it is being used to create writing systems for endangered languages like Cia-Cia/Butonese. Hangul has such an interesting history and I’ve been inspired to think of some future research projects that concern it.

Recommendations for a good read: There are too many good books and at the risk of being labeled a huge nerd (as if the multiple projects weren’t enough), I love epics. So I love Beowulf, the Iliad, and I’m really enjoying the Poetic Edda right now. I find them pretty exciting, but I do enjoy more modern stuff too. Anything by Sarah J. Maas is amazing.

What are you doing on your average Saturday afternoon?: On Saturday, I teach Learn-to-Skate at the Wichita Ice Center from the morning to the afternoon. After that, I normally go home and curl up with a good book and a cup of tea or find some ind of craft to do. (This past weekend was candle-making.) Saturday afternoon is pretty much all of my free time for the week so I cherish it.

Thank you to Emily for being our first Spotlight of the semester! Each week, the blog hopes to spotlight another student, staff, or faculty member of the English department. If you have any people you think would be great to hear from, send us a recommendation at wichitaenglish@gmail. com and we’ll reach out!

Haiknews

I woke up freezing,

Covered in an iced blanket

Why now, Wichita?

Publication News

Wichita State’s creative writing program is teaming up with the university’s theater students to create a podcast project of original fiction. The first podcast is complete, and it features a story by Michael Cole, MFA candidate in fiction.

Michael wrote “Lover’s Lane” this spring in English 801 Graduate Fiction Workshop in response to an assignment to write a story about events which take place during a small unit of time. He managed to ingeniously get around that constraint. The story is read by Christian James, a theater student.

The title of the podcast is In Cahoots, and a link to it can be found here. Check it out, and congratulations to Michael!

In addition, Zach Parker’s creative essay, “This is Not a Story” will be published in this year’s edition of Chadron State’s 10th Street Miscellany.

Byrne nominated for Pushcart Prize

Last semester, Nicole Byrne, MFA candidate in poetry, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Bright Sleep Magazine for her poem “Sestina for Leaving Costa Rica.” The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best poetry, short fiction, essays, or literary whatnot published in small presses over the previous year. Congratulations, Nicole!

Check out this book trailer from our own Becca Yenser

Becca Yenser, MFA candidate in fiction, created a book trailer for her upcoming book of poetry being published by Dancing Girl Press. Check out the teaser here. And watch out for the published product soon!

Southwest American Popular/Culture Association Conference Recap

Victoria Hendricks, second-year MA student, was among the Wichita State students who presented at the 2018 SWPACA and reports:

MA student Jesse Allen, MA student Lillian Dickerson, and MA student VictoriaHendricks all presented at Albuquerque, New Mexico’s 2018 Southwest American Popular American Culture Association with their papers entitled “Seeing Flesh and Bones: Exploring the Entirety of the Gaze in Julie Ducournau’s “Raw”, “Disability’s Black Mark and a Search for Companionship Through Murder, Reverie, or Otherwise:Devil Bug’s Journey through the Quaker City”, and“Is There a Heaven for the Black?”: The Functionality of Whitewashing Christianity in Harriet E. Wilson’s Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black”, respectively. All were met with praise.

Lillian Dickerson was also awarded the “Identities and Cultures” Graduate Student Award for her presentation on “Disabilities’ Black Mark and a Search for Companionship Through Murder, Reverie, or Otherwise: Devil Bug’s Journey through the Quaker City” at said conference.

Halloween ComicFest call for presentations

The University Libraries will be hosting Halloween ComicFest again this year, and they’re looking for people to present during break-out sessions of 20-30 minutes each. Topics may include comics, graphic novels, cosplay, or really any popular culture or “geeky” themes. Last year’s talks ranged from the influence of Japanese monster movies on American cinema to transhumanism in modern media to the history of comics in Latin America.

If you are interested in presenting, please complete this short form. Topics don’t necessarily need to be set in stone yet, it’s mostly to confirm interest and availability and to give the planning committee an idea of our presenters’ areas of interest. Of course, if you are interested in presenting yourself you’re welcome to submit a proposal as well.

Responses from interested presenters are due by March 9th, and the schedule will be finalized around early April.

Meme contest still open

We all love memes, right? Well, we particularly love English-inspired memes. And so we are hosting an English Meme Contest! Send us your wittiest, cleverest, meme-iest memes! Memes will be featured on the Weekly Digest postings, and the winning memes will be compiled in a “Best Of” blog post at the end of the year. Entering is simple. Just email us your meme at wichitaenglish@gmail.com.

And if memes aren’t your thing, no worries. In the coming weeks, you’ll have the chance to send in fun poetry and flash fiction to us too! All of these contests will result in the compilation of Wichita’s best use of words (and images) in a final “Best Of” blog post at the end of April. So start making those memes, or sharpening your pencils to send us some fun poetry or flash fiction. We’re looking forward to what you all come up with!

Upcoming Events

Mikrokosmos will be meeting on Friday, February 23, at 12 PM in Lindquist 500.

The English Speaker Series is hosting an informational session and workshop on
Career Options for the English Student” on Friday, February 23, at 3 PM in Lindquist 111. Check out the flier below for more information.

Mikrokosmos will be hosting Mikrobrews at the Donut Whole on Thursday, March 1, from 7-9 PM. There’s an open mic competition, and prizes involved! Help Mikrokosmos raise money for their release party! Check out the flier below for some more information.

The next Linguistics Club meeting will be Friday, March 2 from 12-1 PM.

The next Sigma Tau Delta meeting will be Friday, March 2 from 1-2 PM.

The next English Graduate Student Association meeting will be Friday, March 2 from 2-3 PM.

The English Department will host an informational session titled, “Applying to Graduate School” on Friday, March 9 at 3 PM. Both graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged to join.

The English Speaker Series will continue on Friday, April 6 at 3 PM with Laura Mielke, who will be presenting on her recent project, Provocative Eloquence: Theatre and the Limits of Anti-Slavery Oratory in the Antebellum U.S..

The weekly digest is published online on the blog every Wednesday. We’d love to hear from you! If you have any news at all to share, please send it to wichitaenglish@gmail.com or use the “Submit Blog News” form located on the rightmost corner on the blog.